D&D 5E D&D's Classic Settings Are Not 'One Shots'

In an interview with ComicBook.com, WotC's Jeremy Crawford talked about the visits to Ravenloft, Eberron, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and (the upcoming) Planescape we've seen over the last couple of years, and their intentions for the future.

He indicated that they plan to revisit some of these settings again in the future, noting that the setting books are among their most popular books.

We love [the campaign setting books], because they help highlight just how wonderfully rich D&D is. They highlight that D&D can be gothic horror. D&D can be fantasy in space. D&D can be trippy adventures in the afterlife, in terms of Planescape. D&D can be classic high fantasy, in the form of the Forgotten Realms. It can be sort of a steampunk-like fantasy, like in Eberron. We feel it's vital to visit these settings, to tell stories in them. And we look forward to returning to them. So we do not view these as one-shots.

- Jeremy Crawford​

The whole 'multiverse' concept that D&D is currently exploring plays into this, giving them opportunities to resist worlds.

When asked about the release schedule of these books, Crawford noted that the company plans its release schedule so that players get chance to play the material, not just read it, and they don't want to swamp people with too much content to use.

Our approach to how we design for the game and how we plan out the books for it is a play-first approach. At certain times in D&D's history, it's really been a read-first approach. Because we've had points in our history where we were producing so many books each year, there was no way anyone could play all of it. In some years it would be hard to play even a small percentage of the number of things that come out. Because we have a play-first approach, we want to make sure we're coming out with things at a pace where if you really wanted to, and even that would require a lot of weekends and evenings dedicated to D&D play, you could play a lot of it.

- Jeremy Crawford​

You can read more in the interview at ComicBook.com.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well let’s see.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh - brings back all sorts of Greyhawk goodness.

Candlekeep - massive deep dives into FR lore.

Rime - brings out all sorts of Ten Towns lore.

Spelljammer- brings back rather a lot of Spelljammer lore and makes the settin a hundred times more popular than it originally was.

That’s off the top of my head.

Sketchy and altered lore is what Spelljammer in 5e is all about. That and a lack of rules material people expected.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Then what, we just kill every setting because 30 years ago someone wrote some half-baked module on minimum concern for a magazine article, and apparently that half-baked one-off module has such cosmic concern to the ongoing narrative that we can't just ignore it and instead need to either stick with it, or invent an entirely new setting?

Look, we like to giggle at the Forest Oracle, but I am absolutely sure people ignore that one all the time and no one suffers for it


The Ravenloft book is mostly revamped old stuff. Just, y'know, giving reasons for certain Darklords other than 'oooo a wolfwere isn't a werewolf its spooooky' like certain Old Ravenloft domains used to be.

No domain was predicated on the idea that "wolfwere isn't a werewolf therefore its scary". The inanities that people always post about the pre-5E Ravenloft prove none of them even read any of it.

 

[Remathilis]

That's what new settings are for.

I gotta admit, your "better she dies with her honor than live sullied" take on campaign lore fascinates me. How do you engage with any sort of legacy genre media (Marvel, Star Trek, etc) without going CinemaSins on it?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Ravenloft has been redesigned to allow more space for ideas by players and 3PPs inDMGuild.

I dare to say Hasbro is happy with the new Spelljammer in the sense they have got a franchise could be used to sell toys, videogames and other products in the future.

The city of Greyhawk could become a "planar hub" like Sigil or Radiant Citadel because the dungeons of the near castle Greyhawk are a demiplane with planar portals toward other worlds, places in the same planet, in the same wildspace or alternate wildspaces. Then lots of "new" species in Oerth would be from the castle Ravenloft, as refugees escaping some horrible fate in their original world. Maybe there is a planar gate from Greyhawk toward Nentir Vale.

My fear about Dark Sun is Hasbro fears this could be used as a satire about the "climate emergency" by both sides. A new DS is possible, but it would be only the same title, and a radically different setting instead the original Athasian tablelands. Something has happened and now the Athasian state-cities are in an infernal plane. The good new is the innocent souls were "raptured" and sent to a better and safer place. There is slavery in that infernal city-states, but only with souls of criminal sinners. This "new" Athasian tablelands would be a supernatural realm in the same way the comingsoon "Duskmourn: House of Horrors". Then this new DS would be like "Jackandor but with a horrible neighbour".

* Why not to unlock Ghostwalk in the DMGuild? The risk shouldn't be too high. How would be a "reverse isekai" where the PCs are ghost who can travel to a world with modern technology (then we shouldn't worry about firearms breaking the power balance), but this is a virtual simulation like Matrix, and potential breakout of zombie-like (plantouched-)elemental monsters? Or the ghost PCs from D&D traveling and exploring "Gamma World".

Or a spin-off of Duskmourn but in a retrofuturist (Atomic Heart, Fallout, Bioshock) megacity full of archologies (superskyscrappers) (A mixture of "Escape from New York, Jurasick Park and Terminator).

* Jackandor should be totally rebooted to can add all the "players' option" (PC species and classes).

* How would be the WotC version of Hasbro franchises as Visionaries or Micronauts?

* How could be the D&D version of almost forgotten no-Hasbro franchises, for example Hanna-Barbera cartoons "Pirates of the Dark Waters" and "Wildfire"?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I gotta admit, your "better she dies with her honor than live sullied" take on campaign lore fascinates me. How do you engage with any sort of legacy genre media (Marvel, Star Trek, etc) without going CinemaSins on it?

Marvel and Star Trek have both made sincere effort to stick with the lore as much as possible. D&D has not.

 

[Reynard]

Why re-invent a setting to keep recycling its IP when you can make a new setting that is actually designed to do what you want it to do?

Cost. Nostalgia. Name recognition.

I would suggest an additional possibility: longevity. If King Arthur, Robin Hood, Superman or Star Wars would not have changed, they would be long forgotten. Allowing a character or milieu or setting to change over time increases the probability that it will still be beloved as decades and even centuries pass.

 

[Scribe]

I would suggest an additional possibility: longevity. If King Arthur, Robin Hood, Superman or Star Wars would not have changed, they would be long forgotten. Allowing a character or milieu or setting to change over time increases the probability that it will still be beloved as decades and even centuries pass.

I disagree pretty hard. Star Wars alone is a black hole of potential issues. No change was needed there, at all. Superman, Robin hood? The broad strokes are unchanged in modern times. It's just brand recognition and a back catalog that Wizards doesn't have to spin out of air.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I would suggest an additional possibility: longevity. If King Arthur, Robin Hood, Superman or Star Wars would not have changed, they would be long forgotten. Allowing a character or milieu or setting to change over time increases the probability that it will still be beloved as decades and even centuries pass.

Change can be additive; in most franchises with real longevity it is. Star Wars has changed over the years, but they never said the original films or anything else didn't happen, or happened differently. D&D does.

 

[mamba]

I would suggest an additional possibility: longevity. If King Arthur, Robin Hood, Superman or Star Wars would not have changed, they would be long forgotten. Allowing a character or milieu or setting to change over time increases the probability that it will still be beloved as decades and even centuries pass.

I disagree, Robin Hood and Arthur barely changed, and I like what I consider the originals better than any of the reimaginations.

Star Wars is a pretty good case for changes almost ruining a franchise. If we just had the original trilogy someone would have made less money, but it did not help with belovedness

 

[Parmandur]

I disagree, Robin Hood and Arthur barely changed, and I like what I consider the originals better than any of the reimaginations.

Star Wars is a pretty good case for changes almost ruining a franchise. If we just had the original trilogy someone would have made less money, but it did not help with belovedness

What do you think yhe "original" of King Arthur is...? Because odds are it's a reimagination.